On marketing.

New Name In Waffles: Hungry Jack

Frozen waffles only a few years ago comprised an upbeat category, with the top brands posting double-digit gains.

But that was before other frozen breakfast items, including toaster pastries and bagels, started eating away at waffles.

The result: Frozen waffles have become a flat business, though a category still with hefty volume, like $520 million-plus annually.

Kellogg Co.'s collection of waffles, headed by its Eggo brand, holds 69 percent of the business, according to recent data from Information Resources Inc.

Eggo isn't likely to be dislodged as leader, as it benefits from more than $30 million in ad spending.

Pillsbury Co., which got into frozen waffles when it acquired the Downyflake brand in its early 1995 acquisition of Pet Inc., has decided that its Hungry Jack brand may be a more meaningful banner with consumers.

Downyflake and Aunt Jemima's frozen waffles, the latter recently sold by Quaker Oats Co. under a licensing arrangement to Van de Kamp's in St. Louis, have been the No. 2 and 3 brands in the category. But both brands declined in sales for a recent 52-week period monitored by IRI. Downyflake is an $85 million brand.

At Pillsbury in Minneapolis, "We're looking to put more energy behind our frozen-waffle business," says Ellen Perl, the firm's VP-breakfast products. Her record at Pillsbury is distinguished by making the firm's Toaster Strudel a $100 million-plus annual brand in the last four years.

While dropping Downyflake as a brand after nearly 50 years might be considered ill-advised, Pillsbury claims it has done enough consumer research to indicate that waffles under the banner of Hungry Jack would be a stronger entry. All Hungry Jack brands, including pancake mix, syrup and biscuits, exceed $200 million a year in sales.

During a transition period beginning July 1, Downyflake becomes "Downyflake from Hungry Jack." Eventually, Hungry Jack will become the label.

As part of this makeover, the frozen-waffle line has been reformulated and repackaged.

Also, such new varieties as apple cinnamon and low-fat waffles (the latter an improved version of an existing item) will be added.

The rebranding also includes a hefty 44 percent increase in marketing and promotion, of which there will be "significant" media ad spending, says Perl.

A mere $38,000 was spent for media advertising on behalf of Downyflake in 1995.

Foote, Cone & Belding San Francisco has the ad assignment on the new Hungry Jack waffle.

- Eileen McKnight, VP-director of media planning for E.H. Brown Advertising, on Friday becomes VP-national advertising sales for Denver-based Jones International's Jones Education Network unit. This unit provides cable programming, for which McKnight, based in Chicago, will head up ad sales. Working out of a new Jones Education office here, McKnight will report to Ilene Block, group VP-marketing for Jones Education. Block, a former Chicagoan, is in Denver.

- N.W. Ayer & Partners Chicago has undergone a staff spinoff, which might result in an additional banner, perhaps "retail division," at a new location where 15 employees have moved. This group, headed by Gary Young and Paul Oleff, both Ayer executive VPs, moved over the weekend to 15,000 square feet at 111 E. Wacker Drive, where the agency has had vacant space under a lease that runs till 2000. These staffers, in account contact and creative, are mostly former employees of Bentley, Barnes & Lynn, an Ayer acquisition. They work on such accounts as the Chicago Tribune, Town & Country Homes, Oldsmobile Dealers associations and GMC Truck groups around the country. Ayer Chicago maintains its principal space at 515 N. State St., where 39 staffers are located.

As expected, MacDonald Communications Corp., a newly formed firm headed by Jay MacDonald, a former publisher of Inc. magazine, has reached an agreement to acquire Working Woman, Working Mother and Ms. magazines from Lang Communications. There are other private investors backing MacDonald. Lang for months had been seeking an infusion of new capital to solidify its operation. It couldn't be determined if Dale Lang, who has headed Lang Communications, will retain an equity position in MacDonald. MacDonald recently has been chairman-CEO of World Congress Inc., a conference and seminar business.